Bottom Line: SurveyGizmo has done an excellent job balancing the ability to do complex tasks with a feature-rich interface design that doesn't get in the way or require long hours of training to use effe...

Bottom Line: Unlike much of its competition, which is aimed at beginners and small businesses, FluidSurvey is an enterprise-grade tool aimed at survey professionals. It's not easy or cheap, but for serio...

Bottom Line: GetFeedback put its mission in its name. This is a purpose-built tool designed to garner feedback from customers on the move via mobile-centric online surveys. And it's very good at what it ...

Bottom Line: Online survey tool SoGoSurvey has great deployment and reporting tools, and a few unique question types that make it appealing. If it streamlined the survey build process, it would be awesom...

Esther SchindlerThe Best Online Survey Tools of 2018One of the best ways to connect directly with your customers is through online survey marketing. We test and compare 10 survey tools to get you started.

What Is an Online Survey?

One of the best and most informative ways to connect directly with your customer base is through effective use of online survey tools. Market research statistics can provide almost magical insight into markets, strategies, and customers. But contracting with professional research firms is often cost-prohibitive for many small to midsize businesses (SMBs). But perhaps what you can't afford to pay for may be cheaper, easier, and even more effective if you do it yourself. If you want to know what people think, ask them. While that ought to be obvious advice, too few SMBs consider conducting surveys as a response to that directive. That's a shame since you can devise better business plans and make better decisions with data in hand, ripe for intelligent analysis than relying on guesswork or gut feelings. Gathering that knowledge is far simpler than you might imagine as several online applications make the market research process easy.

There are dozens of reasons to create surveys, and nearly all of those reasons are good ones. An online survey can help customer relationship representatives gauge customer satisfaction (e.g., "How happy were you with our spa services?"), solicit information from existing or prospective customers (e.g., "Which of these proposed new features would be most valuable to you?"), or help human resources (HR) professionals learn what matters to employees (e.g, "How can your manager give you better feedback?"). Some form-based "applications" also fit the survey model such as testing educational efforts (e.g., "Here's the final exam!") or unemployment claims submissions. Even better: People love to tell you what they think. They want to be asked. So don't be shy.

Fortunately, the online survey tools for creating and administering surveys have vastly improved since I first tested PC-based tools in 1999. The 10 web-based online survey tools I evaluated in this roundup are Campaign Monitor GetFeedback, Checkbox Survey, FluidSurveys, Outside Software eSurveys Pro, SoGoSurvey, SurveyGizmo, SurveyMonkey, SurveyPlanet, WorldApp KeySurvey, and Zoho Survey. All of them guide you step by step th2ough creating a survey, sharing the survey (so people have the opportunity to answer all those questions), and evaluating the results. All of these apps are excellent; you won't be disappointed in any of the choices (even the free versions thereof).

However, SurveyGizmo stood out from its competitors. Each of its features always did things a tiny bit better than its competitors. For instance, its mobile support included a mobile preview, it gives you (and thus, respondents) a time estimate, and branching logic doesn't require a jump to a new page. For these reasons, it has earned our Editors' Choice award in this roundup.

Each app follows a similar path. They help you design the survey, launch it (exhorting respondents to "take my survey!" via email, social media, or embedding on a website), collect data, and report on the results. Each step can be as simple or complex as you like (or as you require anyhow). For instance, you can control the survey appearance such as background color, typeface, and company logo, or just go with the default styling.

Plan Your Survey

There are several important steps to consider when planning an online survey project. First, think demographics. Simplu throwing a survey into web space isn't nearly as effective as not only pointing it at a specific audience, but tailoring your questions and collected data points at that audience, too. Mine your CRM app for guidance on either which customers you want to target or which characteristics of your existing customers you can use to better target your survey at people with whom your company has never interacted. If you've got a business intelligence (BI) tool focused on other customer-facing databases, like invoicing or helpdesk, you can drill down to more audience-focusing data even more effectively.

Once you've got a better idea of who'll be taking your survey, you better frame your questions since you'll have a more focused idea of what kind of information you want from these folks. This is the time you should also conisder what form your survey will take. Generally, for an electronic survey, you'll be choosing between an email and a web survey. The tools we've reviewed here focus primarily on the latter. If you decide on an email survey, some of these tools support that method, but overall you'll have more flexibility with both delivery and data collection with a web-based survey.

An important new deployment target is the mobile device. According to a study from Greenbook that had more than 1.5 million respondents, more than 19 percent of today's online survey's get taken on a mobile device. Makers of online survey tools are responding with companies like SurveyMonkey designing entirely new interfaces incorporating new capabilities around not just mobile but also artificial intelligence (AI).

Once you've got the who and the how, it's time for the when. The problem with online surveys is that they take some time to complete, which means results can often be forgotten or go unnoticed until results are outdated. Avoid this by building a project timeline that covers not just building and deploying your survey, but also data collection, analysis, and report creation. While several of the tools we review here support features that can help with all those steps, it's up to you to initiate those capabilities in a timely enough manner that the results remain relevant.

Sometimes It's How You Ask the Question

The heavy lifting usually goes into the process of building your survey. These apps can't help you decide what to ask (e.g., asking, "What do you expect to earn?" is better than, "What do you want to earn?" because the latter encourages fantasies), but they all help you define how to ask it. So the apps step you through the different ways to present questions. You're likely familiar with the basics such as a single or multiple-choice check box, a drop-down menu, or a text box for "essay questions". And most market research needs nothing beyond those question types. However, each app offers many more options, from ranking questions ("On a 1-5 scale, where 5 is awesome and 1 is kill-me-now…") to matrix choices (one answer per row).

Another part of the survey design process is controlling the order in which you ask questions, and of whom they're asked. For example, let's say you're surveying pet owners. You first have to ascertain that the respondent owns a pet and then gently end the survey if this individual isn't qualified.

Then you may ask cat owners questions that aren't shown to dog owners; otherwise, dog owners will be confused, bored, or waste their time giving you irrelevant data. Generally, that means splitting up a survey into several (sometimes interlocking) webpages. You don't show cat-litter preference questions until you know how many cats rule the household. Another reason to put questions on separate pages is to hide upcoming questions; "Which brands come to mind" should not be asked where the respondent can see, "Have you heard of any of these brands?"

Every online survey app lets you skip questions or otherwise perform survey logic (at least, once you pay for a subscription; the free versions have feature limitations). The complexity of survey logic you can create is in the "you get what you pay for" department.

All of the survey apps share basic features, such as requiring a question to be answered; controlling page breaks; and randomizing the order in which questions are asked or answers are presented. They also let you style the text, support languages beyond English, preview the survey before you launch it, and share the URL of the survey webpage. And, of course, each app lets you view the survey results, including options to filter the data ("show responses only from people who prefer dark chocolate" –oh wait, that's everybody!) and to compare responses based on answers to secondary questions ("show salary expectations correlated by gender").

How You Deploy the Survey

Each app's features beyond the basic functionality is what distinguishes its strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the number of surveys you create and the nature of the information you're seeking, some of these criteria should be on your short list.

In the simplest case, you don't need more than a URL to include in an email message along with hand-constructed text like, "Help us decide which hotel to choose for our user group conference!" Incorporating these types of emails into a marketing automation workflow is a simple process no matter which tool you choose.

But to get customers' attention, that email message needs some kind of formatting. You might also need to track participation and to send reminders to those who didn't respond. On the other hand, you don't want to "over touch" the audience by asking the same people to respond too often. That's bad manners, not to mention that you don't want to hear from the same people all of the time. SoGoSurvey gets a nod for its email-list tracking in that regard. If your chosen survey tool doesn't support these features, then look for them in your chosen email marketing package.

Where Will People Take the Survey?

All these apps work perfectly in a web browser. But if your audience of 20-somethings is apt to respond to the survey on their smartphones, then it behooves you to test and deploy the survey on that platform. (SurveyGizmo gets top marks for showing a preview on multiple devices. Campaign Monitor GetFeedback shines brightly with a mobile-first design.)

Need to share "take my survey" via social media? The apps' features vary there, too. Not everyone posts survey links directly to Google+. But don't expect much. Even when social media sharing is supported, though, it probably means nothing more than constructing a tweet on your behalf. You easily could do that with social media tracking tools without the survey tool's help.

When Should the Survey Stop Accepting Input?

There's no point in wasting anyone's time if nobody looks at the results. All of these apps let you close a survey based on date (such as accepting responses until the end of the month). Others, such as SoGoSurvey, permit you to stop when you have "enough" responses (surely, 1,000 people telling you which color they prefer is enough to make a decision?). This requirement doesn't apply to surveys you implement as an ongoing feedback mechanism, such as customer satisfaction research sent automatically after a hotel stay.

Sometimes you need "open-ended" data in a particular format. All of these apps support data validation in basic forms, such as a date or email ID. But if your needs are specific (for instance, FluidSurveys can check UK post codes and URLs), then you may need to spend more money.

Slicing and Dicing the Results

Every one of these apps does an admirable job at presenting the results in pretty charts and graphs. Some do impressive things with their analysis, however, such as SurveyGizmo performing text analysis on open-ended questions or Checkbox Survey automatically sending an email to a designated ID based on a survey response (such as a poor mark for customer service).

Quite often, your business or community group's survey needs are met with minimal functionality, and these apps are overkill. But if you really care about learning what customers, users, and employees feel, you'll be sure to appreciate the features in these apps. I know I do.

Cons: Don't expect all this power to come without a learning curve. Its advanced capabilities require time to master.

Bottom Line: SurveyGizmo has done an excellent job balancing the ability to do complex tasks with a feature-rich interface design that doesn't get in the way or require long hours of training to use effectively.

Pros: FluidSurveys has seemingly neverending features and options. Can handle survey needs that would otherwise justify extensive customization.

Cons: All of its power comes at a cost; this is not ideal for the budget-minded SMB.

Bottom Line: Unlike much of its competition, which is aimed at beginners and small businesses, FluidSurvey is an enterprise-grade tool aimed at survey professionals. It's not easy or cheap, but for serious users it'll get the job done.

Pros: Helps you create superb interactive, mobile surveys with visual elements that make you want to stroke the screen.

Cons: Weak reporting analysis features. You get results for each question but no filtering or analysis.

Bottom Line: GetFeedback put its mission in its name. This is a purpose-built tool designed to garner feedback from customers on the move via mobile-centric online surveys. And it's very good at what it does.

Pros: Powerful reporting features that help you understand the results of your survey.

Cons: The user experience of creating the survey is somewhat awkward.

Bottom Line: Online survey tool SoGoSurvey has great deployment and reporting tools, and a few unique question types that make it appealing. If it streamlined the survey build process, it would be awesome.

About the Author

Longtime tech industry journalist Esther Schindler has translated geek-talk into English since 1992. She loves to explain how technology can, indeed, improve the quality of life. Find her on Twitter at @estherschindler. Bring chocolate.

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